All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material.
However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentation or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves
Not Applicable
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The present invention relates generally to the safe application of insect repellent to human skin. The invention may lo also be utilized in situations where hazardous, toxic, and/or contaminated materials must be handled with safety.
While the field of the present invention is directed primarily to the field of insect repellant application, the present invention may be equally applied to other situations, such as application of sun-block (sun tanning lotion), protection of the hands while handling contaminated and/or oily materials, control of blood-borne contamination, and the like. Thus, the application of the present invention as disclosed is much broader than the insect repellant application field.
While malaria has been widely associated with transmission via mosquitoes and other insects, generally this disease has been treatable with traditional medical techniques. However, recent introduction of the West Nile virus into the Eastern United States has prompted a widespread concern that mosquito bites could in some circumstances be fatal due to transmission of this disease by the mosquito population. Therefore, a much greater emphasis on preventing mosquito bites is now present in the United States than previously due to this new biological threat. In an effort to reduce infection rates of West Nile virus, the present invention attempts as one of its objectives to improve the mechanism of application of insect repellant to human skin.
Currently there is no safe and effective method of applying insect repellent to human skin without also contaminating the hands of the person applying the insect repellent. In particular, the application of insect repellent to the skin of children can be problematic since it is possible for sprays and the like to accidentally burn a child""s eyes or contaminate their hands during the application process.
Most insect repellents sold today are either in spray or lotion form, with the sprays being the most common. The industry currently has no safe method of applying the sprays to human skin during windy conditions or when children are the subjects of application. Furthermore, it is almost impossible for the person applying the spray to prevent contamination of their hands during the process. This condition makes handling food and the like problematic after application of the insect repellent.
Since many circumstance involving the use of insect repellents and the like involve situations where water is not available for hand washing, there is a significant issue of contamination after making use of insect repellent for either self-application or for application to another person.
Within the past 20 years there has been an increase in blood-borne diseases, including HIV (AIDS) as well as hepatitis and specifically hepatitis-C. These blood-borne diseases may be spread through contact with contaminated blood products. As a result, medical workers and persons administering first aid are trained to wear surgical gloves when treating patients who have open wounds or who are contaminated with blood products.
Given the widespread use of latex surgical gloves to solve this problem, there seems to be little thought in the industry as to the disposal problem created by contaminated surgical gloves. In traditional hospital settings the surgical gloves are disposed of in special medical waste containers. However, this approach is impractical or impossible in many first-aid situations, especially where lay persons are administering treatment to patients that have become injured. Examples of this include school settings, athletic events, and a wide variety of other scenarios where non-professionals must treat injured individuals.
While a wide variety of safety/utility glove/mitten configurations have been patented (see generally U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,347,931; 4,430,759; 4,536,890; 4,545,841; 4,902,283; 4,942,626; 5,088,123; 5,187,815; 5,542,125; 5,560,044; 5,566,405; 5,575,014; 5,636,382; 5,661,853; 5,715,841; 5,732,716; 5,740,551; 5,771,490; 5,813,409; 5,822,795; 5,822,796; 5,824,161; 5,862,916; 5,878,438; 5,924,137; 6,024,094), there appears to be no prior art directly applicable to the application of insect repellant and/or the reduction of contamination associated with human contact with unsafe materials.
The closest applicable prior art appears to include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,931 issued to Rodney E. Ginger and Manfred Jungesblut on Sep. 7, 1982 for MITT. Here the inventor describes a disposable mitt pack comprising a bag-like mitt for accommodating the hand of the wearer with an outer impregnated surface material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,283 issued to Josef Rojko, Maria Rojko, Norbert Leopoldi, and Roy A. Weidemann on Feb. 20, 1990 for ABSORBABLE CLEANING MITT FOR WIPING BABIES. Here the inventor describes a baby-wipe for wiping and cleaning babies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,841 issued to Leo J. Utecht on Feb. 10, 1998 for PERSONAL PROTECTION APPARATUS WITH ADHESIVE. Here the inventor describes a personal protection apparatus including barrier members to protect the individual from infectious disease and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,716 issued to Leo J. Utecht on Mar. 31, 1998 for PERSONAL PROTECTION METHOD. Here the inventor describes a personal protection method using a personal protection apparatus incorporating barrier members to protect the individual from infectious disease.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,094 issued to Leo J. Utecht on Feb. 15, 2000 for MEDICAL BIOHAZARD CLEAN UP METHOD AND DEVICE. Here the inventor describes a personal protection apparatus incorporating a method of disposal that minimizes potential for contamination by hazardous waste.
The applicant is not aware of any relevant prior art directly applicable to the present invention. While rubberized gloves and the like do exist in the prior art, there appears to be no glove or other applicator means available that is directly applicable for use in the safe application of insect repellant and the like. Furthermore, no system appears available to minimize the potential contamination associated with insect repellant or its harmful effects on the surrounding environment (car seats, furniture, etc.).
Finally, as applied to control of blood-borne contamination, the widespread use of surgical gloves and the like does not teach any method to control the contamination associated with the blood-borne diseases that may be present on a contaminated surgical glove. Both in the context of a hospital setting and in the context of unskilled first-aid application, there appears to be no teaching of any contamination control mechanism as described herein.
Accordingly, the objects of the present invention are (among others) to circumvent the deficiencies in the prior art and affect one or more of the following objectives:
1. Provide a method of applying insect repellent to human skin wherein the person applying the repellent does not contaminate their hands during the process.
2. Provide a safe method to apply insect repellent to children.
3. Provide a safe method of applying insect repellent during windy conditions.
4. Provide a mechanism to control contamination of blood-borne diseases in the context of first-aid procedures.
5. Provide an integrated method of controlling contamination from a variety of sources other than blood-borne contaminants.
While these objectives should not be understood to limit the teachings of the present invention, in general these objectives are achieved by the disclosed invention that is discussed in the following sections.
Briefly, the invention teaches in a variety of embodiments a system and method permitting the safe application of insect repellent and the like to human skin, as well as a general system and method of contamination control.
As illustrated in FIG. 1 (100), the present invention solves the problems present in the prior art by permitting a glove/mitten (110) to be used by an agent (120) to apply the insect repellent (130) to the patient (140). The insect repellent (130) is first applied to an absorbent glove/mitten (110) and this article is then used in direct contact with human skin to apply the insect repellent. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the glove/mitten (111) has an internal barrier layer (116) to prevent the insect repellent from contacting the hand of the person applying the insect repellent. Note that the internal barrier layer (116) may conform to a human hand or be constructed in the form of a mitten. The key feature is that this layer is impermeable to contaminants.
Additionally, a protective sleeve/gauntlet (112, 113) is attached to the glove/mitten (111) to permit the glove/mitten (111) to be temporarily encapsulated during times of non-use as illustrated in FIG. 3. This permits the applicator glove/mitten (111) to be stored without potential for human contamination by the insect repellent. It is envisioned that the protective sleeve/gauntlet could have a child proof latch to prevent access by children, as well as permitting resealing by adults.